1

Using email

• Messages sent from machine to machine and stored for later reading.

• You will use a client to read email:– Type mail or pine in UNIX to read email.– Use programs like Outlook on Windows.

• Different mail servers use the same protocols to communicate with each other.

2

Mail Servers

• SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) transfers mail between servers.

• The mail server runs a program (daemon) that listens for clients connecting so people can read or write mail.

• On UNIX this program is called sendmail.• A single protocol helps to ensure that different

servers can communicate with each other.

3

Mail Clients

• POP -- Post Office Protocol– Downloads all mail at once.– IMAP -- Interactive Mail Access Protocol, adds

features to POP

• Some Clients– ELM– PINE (PINE Is Not Elm)– Outlook– Eudora– Netscape Mailer

4

Parts of an Email

• Body -- This is the actual message.• Header -- information at the top of the message.

– From: or Received: who sent the mail.

– To: Where the mail goes.

– Cc: Other people who will receive this mail.• Bcc: Blind carbon copy -- a list of people who get a copy of

the message but don’t get listed.

– Subject: What the mail is about.

– Date: When the mail was sent.

5

The mail command

• You can use the mail command in several ways:– mail -- by itself, it opens your messages and lets you

read them– mail person@address -- lets you compose a message to

someone at a certain address.– mail -s (subject) person@address -- lets you send a

message to someone at an address, with a certain subject.

– mail -s (subject) person@address < text_file -- lets you send a message to someone with text_file as the body of the email.

6

Using mail

• When you are writing the mail message body, use ^D or <enter> . <enter> to end editing and send the message.

• If cc: shows up, this is a list of other addresses you can enter if you wish to send a message to other people.

• ^C will kill a mail message you are typing.

7

Mail commands

• These commands are used at the & prompt– q -- quit and save– x -- quit without making any changes.– R or r -- reply to a message (r = senders and

recipients, R = senders only.)– f <numbers> -- view the message headers.– p or t <numbers> -- show those messages

8

More mail commands

• d <numbers> -- delete messages.

• u <numbers> -- undelete messages.

• s <numbers> <file> -- append the messages to <file> with headers.

• w <numbers> <file> -- append messages to <file> -- message only.

9

Message Editing Commands

• Use these while writing the actual message– ~r <file> -- Add a file into the message.– ~f <num> -- add another email into the

message (forwarding).– ~w <file> -- write the message to a file.– ~q -- quit without saving– ~p -- print the contents of the message.

10

Header Editing

• While editing a message you may use…• ~h -- lets you edit the header (to, subject,

cc, bcc)• These may also work:

– ~s -- edit the subject.– ~t -- edit the to list.– ~c -- edit the cc (carbon copy) list.– ~b -- edit the bcc (blind carbon copy) list.

11

Other Features

• alias -- combine addresses- alias me johna@wam.umd.edu

jra@math.umd.edu

• .forward file – send mailto another address.– Forward to self to get a copy on the sending

machine.

• Listservs -- automatic mailing lists.

12

PINE

• A menu-driven client

• Uses pico as an editor

• Allows MIME attachments

• Main Menu– C - Compose to write a message– I or L - View messages– Q - Quit

13

MIME Attachments

• Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension

• Add pictures, files to emails

• Can be dangerous with executables.

• Pine uses MIME instead of plain inclusion.

• Filename on attachment line when writing.